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Broadcast TV Ratings for Monday, March 16, 2009

Week two of the new season of Dancing With the Stars held mostly steady from last week’s premiere, leading ABC to a first place finish with an audience of nearly 21.1 million viewers and a 5.3 A18-49 rating. Perhaps the more important bit of news coming from ABC though, was the performance of the new Nathan Fillion drama Castle. Week two was nearly identical to week one, which is actually pretty good news. We’ll see where the show heads in the coming weeks, but ABC must definitely be pleased that there was no decline in viewership from the week prior (despite the still weak retention levels). Update:Final numbers show that the episode increased slightly over last week’s premiere among viewers (but was down slightly among adults 18-49–click through the jump for more analysis).

There was a tie for second place, with CBS coming out on top among households thanks to consistent performances from its comedy and CSI: Miami line-up and Fox taking second place among viewers and adults 18-49 with solid performances from House and 24.

Fourth place belonged to NBC, which saw abysmal numbers for its complete repeat lineup and fifth place went to The CW, which saw weak numbers for returning dramas Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill.

Full ratings and breakdown’s, including my full analysis, week-to-week comparisons, etc., follow after the jump.

ABC finished in first place for the evening with a 11.4/18 household rating/share, 17.88 million viewers and a 4.6/12 rating/share among adults 18-49.

8:00 p.m.: Dancing With the Stars (13.3/21 HH rating/share, 21.08M viewers, 5.3/14 A18-49 rating/share) was far and away the night’s most-watched program, outpacing its nearest competitor (CBS’s Two and a Half Men) by more than seven million viewers. It’s performance among adults 18-49, where it was down by double-digits over last week’s premiere, was less impressive, but still strong enough to place first on the evening.

10:00 (10:02) p.m.: Castle (7.7/13 HH rating/share, 11.48M viewers, 3.1/9 A18-49 rating/share) held steady from the week prior. Alright, so if you remember what I wrote last week, I said that while the premiere underperformed (in terms of retention from its lead-in and overall audience for a series premiere), if the show could hold that audience or improve over the coming weeks, all would not be lost. Well, the show managed to post slight gains from the week prior when comparing it to the final numbers last week. That last point is important because last week’s performance of the show dropped fairly significantly when the finals were released. When you compare on a strictly fast affiliate to fast affiliate basis, the show was even from the week prior. Based on these fast affiliates, retention was a bit stronger than last week’s premiere (58% among households, 55% among viewers and 59% adults 18-49). So all in all, not bad. Update: Here are the final national numbers: 7.4/12 HH rating/share, 10.97M viewers and a 2.9/8 A18-49 rating/share. So the show dropped, as expected, with the finals, but still managed to post slight gains from the week prior. When coupled with the final numbers for Dancing With the Stars (13.3/20 HH rating/share, 21.22M viewers and a 5.3/14 A18-49 rating/share), the show had better retention from the week prior (56% among households, 52% among viewers and 55% among adults 18-49). Bottom line? This is a better second week performance than most expected.

The three comedies leading into Rules of Engagement at 9:30pm (The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother and TV’s highest-rated comedy Two and a Half Men) all held steady from their week ago numbers, each posting slight single-digit gains.

9:30 p.m.:Rules of Engagement (6.9/10 HH rating/share, 11.41M viewers, 4.0/10 A18-49 rating/share). While there wasn’t much new to report for the preceding comedies, I thought it was important to focus in on Rules of Engagment because of the show’s gains and overall performance. In addition to being the network’s second highest-rated series among adults 18-49 for the night, the show managed solid retention from its Two and a Half Men lead-in.

10:00 p.m.: CSI: Miami (8.6/14 HH rating/share, 13.35M viewers, 3.8/10 A18-49 rating/share) closed out the evening for CBS in a slightly weaker position than usual, but was still easily the night’s most-watched show for the hour across the board, out rating its nearest competitor (ABC’s Castle) by nearly two million viewers.

The CW finished in fifth place for the evening with a 1.5/2 household rating/share, 2.26 million viewers and a 1.1/3 rating/share among adults 18-49.

Last Week:

0.9/1 HH rating [#5]
1.15M viewers [#5]
0.5/1 A18-49 rating [#5]

8:00 p.m.: Gossip Girl (1.5/2 HH rating/share, 2.24M viewers, 1.1/3 A18-49 rating/share), returning from a six-week hiatus, managed to hold on to most of its audience from its last original episode, but that’s not saying much because 2.24M viewers for a primetime network TV series is not at all something The CW should be happy about, especially for a show which has so much buzz (and has already been renewed). To put this number in perspective, Reaper — which has only receieved a 13-episode order from the network and may not be renewed — is averaging…wait for it…2.24 million viewers through two episodes (including the season two premiere).

9:00 p.m.: My same basic analysis that I gave for Gossip Girl above, holds true for One Tree Hill (1.5/2 HH rating/share, 2.27M viewers, 1.2/3 A18-49 rating/share) as well. Not only that, but the show suffered a steeper dip than Gossip Girl, with double-digit declines among households and viewers, and near double-digits among adults 18-49.

Note: Network average numbers from the week prior are based on fast affiliate data. Comparison’s from the week prior (or episode-to-episode, etc.) on specific shows are based on final national data. Ratings for the current day are based on fast affiliate data. (Expect all three scenarios to be the case at all times, unless otherwise noted). The final rating for first-run episodes that aired this evening will be reported the following week. So for example, the final rating for tonight’s episode of “Dancing With the Stars” will be reported in next weeks report for Monday, March 23, 2009.Also keep in mind that because these are fast affiliate numbers, when the finals are released there may be noticeable changes.

And lastly, there may be some errors in the data due to rounding/human error. I’ll do my best to limit those mistakes and correct them in time for the next week’s report.